


Odd One Out

by Anonymous



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Found Family, Gen, Guns, Human Experimentation, Kinda, Ranboo-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Survival, Weapons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 00:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30080352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: ranboo has been surviving all on his own, then he stumbles into a weird makeshift family, meeting them one by one and finds himself adopted into them.they're weird, and even more so when they learn of who ranboo really is and still accept him.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & Toby Smith | Tubbo & Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Comments: 11
Kudos: 194
Collections: Anonymous





	1. We sink before we float

A gas station.

It already looks like its broken into, with the shattered windows and slide door hanging. The possibility of nothing useful inside is high, but its the only place he had stumbled into after a long while.

The sun is unbearable, he feels too stuffed in his clothes, and the gas station might not have food or sources, but its a good shade. 

Ranboo makes sure he has a secure grip on his bag before he starts jogging over, keeping an eye out for the surroundings. There are left over parts of what seems to be car parts, a tire lying carelessly on the floor that is nearly half his size, could be for a truck.

He looks over the windows first, to make sure no one is inside. So far what he can see is absolute ruins, the near empty shells and broken fridges. Ranboo sighs, so far nothing bad, and nothing good.

A simple rest for a few hours.

Ranboo makes his way inside, carefully squeezing through the broken slide door frame. The place stinks, enough for him to smell it through his black and white mask. Ranboo groans at it, thinking again on staying here.

Then he caught the sight of it, the source of the smell and also something on the shelf’s.

“Oh, hello.” ranboo gives a small wave, and the response he gets is a small groan. The (un-)dead standing person in front of him shuffles slightly, they’re leaning heavily on the right side, probably due to the missing left arm limb.

“Dont mind me,” ranboo makes sure to not touch them as he walks past, eyeing the prize. The bag of gummy bears sits untouched, its date is expired, but who cares. Ranboo grabs it, the crinkle of the bag grabs the attention of the zombie by the door, groaning as they turn around to face ranboo.

Ranboo grins, shaking the big packet at the zombie. “Look! A big bag of gummy bears, oh man these didnt melt, they must be solid hard..” he tears the side, dropping a handful of gummy bears into his hand before stuffing the rest of it inside his sling bag, removes his mask and eats it.

“oh- mhm, yep these are gonna take a while to chew, the flavor is still there.” ranboo is glad that they still have some taste, places his mask back on as he turns to look for maybe more hidden candy.

Nothing so far, ripped open boxes of cherry flavored lollipops that already have some bugs crawling over it. The other aile seems like it doesnt have anything, and the fridges content are already melted and there is something black on it, moving, and ranboo does not want anything to do with that.

He hears a slight groan and limpy footsteps, glancing beside him, he sees the zombie. “Oh hey-” ranboo quickly wrecks his brain for a name, “-lauren,” he settles on that, the zombie doesnt do anything other than stay still.

Ranboo nods, the zombie has accepted their name given the response, even tho there wasnt any.

He walks away from them to search for anything else, and to get away from their smell but ranboo tries not to show his hurry. 

There is a small storage room, ranboo notices the only for staff sign as he walks in the darkend room, hands flying to the wall to search for a lightswitch. The bulb flickers slightly before the light up the room, ranboo takes in the destroyed look of the room, switches back the light switch and leaves.

Nothing worth his time there, and...ranboo looks off to the other side that has a door, a bathroom.

Yeah, no, bathrooms are a big no.

He’d have to take rest in the middle of the gas station store. 

He goes between shelf isles, one where it has a clean spot to sit in, one that doesnt have bugs crawling all over or some rotten stuff. 

Ranboo takes off his bag, sitting down and leaning back against the shelf. He sighs, gathering his knees to his chest and crossing his arms, resting his chin ontop of them. It had been a rough walk, a rough week really.

His food source is getting low, and winter is right around the corner.

The only warm clothes he had on him were his heavy jacket, but it got lost unfortunately. Ranboo cant remember what had happened to it, and none of his journals mention anything about it.

He’d have to find something like a city to get clothes, or borrow from some zombie’s and clean it.

He glances outside, the sun is still in the middle of the sky. from whre he is headed, ranboo is pretty sure a city is just straight ahead from here.

Ranboo rests his head, his eyelids already heavy and he falls into a dreamless sleep.

He registers the sound before his eyes snap open, ranboo whips his head to the window, he can see lauren already standing close to it, groaning loudly and attention captured by the sound. Ranboo flails to his bag quickly, looking around if he has everything, before running to the window beside lauren and taking a look.

The car just parked in front, its reinforced, there are ropes attaching spikes to the front-and ranboo bets there are also some on the back-, the car is spray painted on, a drawing of a flame but its drowned in the obvious zombie remains, hanging on the spikes and some are sprayed across it.

He swallows thickly, noticing at least three figures before he drops down so they dont notice  _ him. _

“Ok ok, where is the-,” he glances back, there are only two doors here, the storage and the bathrooms, could have an exit.

Ranboo goes to makes a move for it, but then he sees the leg of somebody squeezing themselves through the broken slide door and oh no, he dashes quietly behind a shelf.

“-why do we have to look inside, it already looks-oh god that smell-” a british guy, ranboo doesnt have the time to peak at him as lauren groans loudly, snarling and making their way to whoever just entered.

“ _ Dream!!”  _ a whack, then a heavy thud. Ranboo flinches as he hesatilty sneaks a peek, a green hooded man holding an axe, over the more dead now lauren. There is another guy behind him, blue shirt and white googles. 

“It didnt touch you, did it?” the green hoodie asks, and white goggles shakes his head, clutching at his shirt. “No-im fine.”

Ranboo swallows thickly, eyeing the blood on the axe, its dulled, heavy looking and the green hoodie seems to have more weapons on him as well, ranboo takes notice of the guy’s belt, there is a gun holster. White googles seems to have a bow and arrow on him as well, as well as a rifle.

What is up with old fashioned weapons and modern ones?    
  
Ranboo swallows thickly, he doesnt want to get caught by these guys. Crosses his finger and hope they decide this place isnt worth it. He really doesnt want to end up like lauren.

“Just one zombie?” “seems so,”

The green hoodie kicks idly at the body, ranboo watches lauren’s body, wincing slightly. He has to get out before they see him.

They move, and ranboo keeps himself hidden, they are on the other side of the store luckily. He can manage to crawl out the window or sneak out the door-

Ranboo halts, he saw three figures.

One of them is staying behind at the car.

Ok, ok, that's ok (no, it was not okay, how is he going to get out-), change of plans. 

Ranboo crouches into himself, glancing back to where the green hoodie and white googles are on the other side of the store. 

Stay hidden.

He tries his best to keep them in his sight, careful to not move anything around him so he doesnt alert them. “Nothing useful…” “its already been looted, lets just go help supnap with the fuel.” “we didnt check the other side though”

Ranboo bites his bottom lip, trying to not breath so loud. He steps back, moving to the end of the shelf isle he is in. ranboo ducks away as soon as he sees a hint of white googel’s foot. 

“Nothing…” one of them sighs, ranboo doesnt care to see who it is, making sure he is hidden before he steals a look at them. Up this close, he can see underneath the green hoodie, the man is wearing a fabric mask with a smiley face on it, the splatter of blood on them makes his stomach twist.

“Guys!” 

Someone from outside is calling out, and ranboo almost sighs in relief that he didnt jump out from the window earlier. “Lets head out, i got enough gas!”

Ranboo doesnt move from his spot as he hears them leaving, only lets out a big relieved sigh as soon as he hears a car engine. The air is still stuffy, but at least ranboo isnt sharing it with people who might have murderous intentions or any bad intention. 

He should leave, seeing as it is nearing sunset. 

if there are more people coming they are going to use this place to hide through the night and ranboo cant risk that, so Walking the rest of the way at night is much safer.

Before he does however, he sits down and brings out one of the memory books he is carrying, flipping through the pages. Grabbing one of his pens, he begins to scribble down the events of the day.

_ …...So far nothing interesting, stumbled into a gas station, got gummy bears, almost got caught but nothing happened luckily….. _

Ranboo squeezes his way out of the gas station’s store, taking off his sunglasses as he glances at the sunset. He can already see some zombies rising from where they lied dormant under the sun, much more active at night.

He turns around to glances at the station, can see the edge of lauren’s foot by the door. “Bye lauren,” 

Ranboo adjusts his bag, reaching in to get some gummy bears as he starts to walk away from the gas station.


	2. my heart beats in my throat

Its a dead night, no source of light from the street bulbs as the electricity died years ago, ranboo relies on the moonlight as he continues to walk. 

He nudges past a couple of zombies walking past, a little ‘excuse me’ as he walks past them. Ranboo can see the city from afar, he is getting closer, it is also pretty evident that he is close by how many zombies he is encountering. The rotting bodies groan weakly at him as he walks past, ranboo trying to keep an eye out for any zombie with any warm clothes he can get.

But he reaches the city before he can find at least one zombie with a coat or jacket, and it's sunrise.

Ranboo is cautious as he walks in, anything could be a trap, people had abandoned cities long ago once the virus and infections started, running to less heavily populated areas.

Cities now are still a dangerous place, overflowed with zombies but also traps. As some brave or stupid people still kept themselves in the city for it's loot, harbouring it themselves.

Ranboo sticks close to the first building he sees, he can explore more in the morning where there is sunlight.

He has his flashlight, but waving it around at night where people could still be living here and keeping watch could see him and see the way zombies aren't attacking him-

Yeah, no, he's going to hide and sleep for now.

Ranboo enters the first building he encounters, he can't see what it is from the outside, nor the inside, total darkness. Ranboo grabs his flashlight, deeming it safe to use inside, he can tell it's small store with its register and semi empty shelf's, and also the zombie wearing a store like apron, they groan as ranboo directs the flashlight at them.

"Oh hello," he whispers, waving a hand. The zombie doesn't seem amused, and ranboo turns to look around once more.

The food doesn't seem to have anything here, it's either already bad or taken.

Ranboo looks around, the staff room, he moves to go push the door, but there seems to be something jamming it on the other side. Ranboo huffs, “okay…” he places down his bag, and takes a few steps back, and tries to bust it open.

"Ok, that's not working, ow." He rubs his arm, slightly hurt from trying to side jump just the door open. He hears an agitated zombie growl, he turns to look over at the apron zombie. "Oh, ha, sorry I just wanted to open the door,"

The zombie only wails lowly, and ranboo nods, albeit not understanding anything of them.

He finds at least a good looking corner he can curl up in, hidden from view of anyone entering, he takes out his memory book, adding more little bits of his day.

ranboo places down his bag and rests his head on it, sleep taking him again once more.

  
  
  
  


At the day where everything is much clearer, and not as many zombies are walking around, ranboo makes his way through the city carefully, Through mostly alleyways and sticking close to buildings, he really doesn't want to risk a chance of meeting someone in the open.

So far his main goal is to get more food, and more warm clothes, maybe even a tent.

Ah, a tent is a dream come true, he has to find that.

"Holy cow," Ranboo spots a place that could just have that.

A row of stores on the street, it's trashed, obviously. The signs are hanging and window stores are broken. But ranboo could spot a few lingering treasures still inside multiple, a man's trash is another's treasure is what they say.

Carefully stepping into one of the stores, ranboo spots multiple clothes racks on the floor, some are still somehow folded and in place.

Nobody seemed to loot through here.

He lets out an excited gasp as he notices some really nice looking clothes, Ranboo goes to select through the many options, changing out of his old grime ones is beneficial, but also style. 

He finds a changing room, and a zombie already is there upon his entrance, "Oh sorry sorry-" he shuts the door, and tells himself it's okay to go to the female’s one.

No one is there luckily.

He keeps his sunglasses (never throw these away, they belonged to her.) and mask (stitched, ranboo can faintly recall who made it for him.), the old clothes go inside the trashbin. "Alright, much better." Looking at himself in the dried blood splattered mirror, he looks pretty good considering the new style of the world so far.

He feels much cleaner, better already and going on the right foot.

Now he can focus on getting food, and a tent if possible.

  
  
  


The rest of the stores are more clothes and brandy, nothing that would spark a survivalist interest. Ranboo would have started groaning like the rest of the zombies here if he doesn't find anything useful in the next hour.

He's getting hungry, the last thing he ate was days ago (if you’d consider gummy bears a meal, then he already chewed on some yesterday.). He'd like to believe he is very patient, but he isn't exactly a saint.

Ranboo sticks close to the shadows and alleyways as he walks forward, the many zombies who are there groan at him as he walks past, losing interest immediately as they notice him.

Something catches his eye, and ranboo turns his head to look at the super market.

"Oh!" How didn't he see that sooner, it's obviously thrashed but there could still be some things he could find.

Inside, it's looted but thanks to ranboos height he can see some canned food pushed to the very end of the shelves.

He opens his bag as he stuffs in the food, "beans, more beans, many types of beans huh." he doesnt really have anything against them, they’re actually delicious, its just kinda cool how many types there are-

"Yeah, and they all taste like fuckin shit."

Ranboo freezes, feel his own heart stopping and holds his breath-

He makes a slight move to turn around but hears the click of a gun. "Don't fuckin move," he stops, he really doesnt want to become a mush of brains.

Ranboo berates himself for a second of how he got too excited that he forgot to scout out the area, but then out of the corner of his eyes he sees someone coming from the corner-

A teenager, someone that could be around his age, brown hair and carrying a stool. 

"Tommy!! I got something that can help...Oh," he freezes, looking at ranboo and whoever is behind him holding a gun. "I got a fuckin dude that can get us the stuff from up there,”

Since ranboo moved his head to see the brown haired guy, he glances to whose behind him, a blonde teenager as well. Ranboo wonders if this is what bullying is like in school, being cornered like this. “You want the...beans?” he tries to say something, turning to the blonde behind him and the blonde adjusts his gun back at him. 

Ranboo holds his hands up, yeah no thanks, he really doesnt want a bullet in his brain.

“Yes i want the fuckin beans, dont move and put it here!” the blonde scowls, but the brunette pipes in.“how do you want him to not move and put it inside the bag-” “-tubbo! Im trying to threaten him.”    
  
Ranboo eyes the gun warily as he places some cans in the bag the blonde is holding over, while the two start talking. “then what do i do with this stool?” ‘tubbo’ says, as what the blonde called him, lifting the wooden stool in his hands. “We can use it to bash some fuckin bitches head in!” 

“Thats too much trouble…” ‘tubbo’ whines, and ‘tommy’ starts ranting on about it and half--and maybe even more--of his sayings are curses.

What is happening? ranboo is utterly confused, he is helplessly stuffing what could have been his food resource into the other teenager bag, while said teenager is arguing with his friend about ways to kill zombies.

“Oh can you tell him to grab that box?” ranboo looks over to where the green wearing one is pointing at, a top shelf on the other side, where a race car toy sits ontop. “...really tubbo?” 

Ranboo watches as ‘tubbo’ gives the stool to tommy, who stumbles slightly from the sudden action and suddenly ranboo is grabbed and moved to the top shelf that holds the race car. “Can you grab it please?” ‘tubbo’ asks, pointing at it, looking up innocently at him.

“Uh, yeah sure-” ranboo stammers, easily getting the box and handing it to him, and his confusion only triples tenfold. “Wh-what the fuck are you going to do with it?” ‘tommy’ comes over, gesturing to the box. “Something that can help us in our scavenge!” “a fuckin toy?” “trust me tommy, it’ll be fun!” 

Ranboo feels out of place, standing awkawrdly to the side. This feels like a conversation he shouldnt be hearing, or be anywhere near really, its weird.

Its...a good and a bad weird, staring at two people similar to his age bickering. He didnt expect to meet-or well, more of an encounter than a meeting-teenagers as well. 

“Oh should we strip him from his stuff?” ranboo perks up when he suddenly notices the two looking at him, and realizes that ‘tubbo’ is eyeing his bag. No, no no no no-

He cant- he has all of his food, supplies and the gummy bears. Not to mention his memory books, he cant give these up ( _ the stuff written inside will get him killed _ )-

The dagger feels heavy inside his pocket, and ranboo is considering it, even though he is a pacifist, (even though the other guy literally has a gun,) he wont hesitate to hurt if that endangers the only thing keeping him alive.

“Nah, doesnt look like he got good shit,” ‘tommy’ says, scanning him over. Immense of relief flood him and ranboo relaxes slightly, “oh thank god, thank you,” he pats his bag, glad that they arent taking anything from him.

“Hey, whats your name?” the green one asks, and ranboo isnt the only one surprised by the sudden question, as the red one turns to his friend in surprise. Ranboo thinks that maybe ‘tommy’ will stop his friend and force him to leave the store, but the other just turns back to him with a curious look as well.

Well, looks like there is no escape to this, “u-uh, im ranboo.” 

The green one beams, smiling slightly, “im tubb-” “ranboo,” the blonde cuts in, leveling him with a glare. Ranboo shuffles back, but there is nowhere to go with the shelf behind him and the two cornering him, feeling a bit nervous. “U-uh yeah?” “how old are you?”

What?

Ranboo wrecks his brain trying to remember, but one thing he knows for sure. “uh, im a minor.” the red shirt teen only squints his eyes further, “...were you born before or after 2004 april 9…” “uhhh...before.” ranbooe says, and he is pretty sure of it.

Then, he leans back, looking smug and smirking. “So that means you’re younger than me,” ranboo hums, shaking his head slightly, “uh, no..it means that im older,” he watches the other face falls down, “uughh why am i still the youngest?!” 

Ranboo watches him stomps away, pouting,  _ pouting. _

What is actually happening?

He cant help but laugh, finding it funny that he cares about whose older and who's not in a zombie apocalypse. “...as i was saying! Im tubbo, thats tommy.” tubbo introduces himself, and ranboo tries to quite down his chuckles so he can respond. 

“Uh, its nice to meet you,” at that, tubbo chuckles, “we literally had a gun pointed at you.” 

“Im not sorry about that!” tommy says from the other side of the story, he is storing something, ranboo sees cans of paint, and holds back his tongue from asking, and focuses on another thing. 

There is no longer a gun being pointed at him.

He can leave.

“So ranboo, do you know the area?”

He can still leave, even though tubbo cornered him again with another question.

Surprisingly though, he doesn't want to leave, as he stares at the two. Its been a while since he had a human interaction, maybe (and although its wishing for too much) friends.

“Uh no, i actually just came here yesterday.” tubbo perks up, “oh! So did we!” he says excitedly. “well, actually we came here from three days ago but we just started exploring more in, we got a camp-” “tubbo!” tommy calls out, and ranboo tries to not feel hurt, he understands (he doubts he will remember what tubbo even said).

“Uh sorry, we…” tubbo trails off awkwardly, and ranboo tries to save this conversation. “So why the toy car?” and he succeeds, judging by the way tommy pokes his head out from where he is, the other is curious as well. 

“Ah, well i said it was a surprise…” tubbo hums, but he rips open the box anyways. “Well, who cares, we are going to check out the mall tomorrow-” tommy hisses tubbo’s name dangerously in the background, but tubbo continues anyways, ranboo isnt sure if tubbo is doing this on purpose now. “-so i thought we could use this as a distraction against zombies!” he waves the remote toy car around, and ranboo marvels at the idea, not before momentarily forgetting that ‘oh, thats right, zombies are dangerous.’.

“Oh wow, thats a good idea. But how..?” “im going to grab an alarm clock and just stick it to the car while controlling it to get the zombies away!” thats a good idea, distracting the zombie’s with sound.

But also it would capture the attention of nearby humans, “arent you worried it will attract some other people?” ranboo asks, and tubbo half shrugs, “we havent seen anyone here yet, and if they noticed my car, what are they going to do? Steal it? I have the remote!” he grabs the remote from the box waving it.

And then ranboo remembers something (shockingly), “oh arent these supposed to have batteries in them?” and at that tubbo freezes, and ranboo sees tommy in the background wheezing at the reaction of the other. “Where the fuck are we going to get batteries?” tommy asks, because batteries are the most valued things to have, for flashlights, radios, and other things, its hard to find them. ranboo glances at him to see him still stuffing in more cans of paint, he’s slightly getting more curious to what these are for.

Tubbo moves to see if there are already any batteries in the toy already, when he sees only an empty shell, he slumps. “..aw damn, i thought…” and ranboo mulls over the sad boy expression already, he sees tommy pause in the background, looking ready to get up and go to his friend to comfort.

Oh, actually.

“Oh actually!” ranboo moves to rummage through his bag, fails to notice that tubbo had taken a step back incase and tommy standing up right and grabbing his gun, ranboo finds it. “Here!” he hands out a case of new batteries. (he had found these a long time ago, he doesnt really need them as he doesnt use a radio, and they arent the type of batteries that would go in his flashlight, these are a bit bigger, fit for the toy tubbo has.)

Tubbo reflexes and blinks at it, carefully grabbing the batteries. “Wow these are the right ones for it!” tubbo is already ripping them open, placing them in the toy. “Thank you!” tubbo smiles at him, and ranboo feels himself smiling as well. Tommy then stalks over to them. “We have to go now," he glances out, and oh, its already nearing sunset. "and you-” ranboo gets a finger pointed at him, and he tries his best not to move. 

“I’ll fuckin beat you if you try anything,” He warns him, and ranboo nods, “yeah yeah, dont worry i wont-” he stammers, and tommy just levels him with a glare. “You’re weird,” then tommy hands him a handful of something before he grabs tubbo hand and turning around to leave. Tubbo waving a goodbye with his free hand, and ranboo watches them go.

He looks down at what he was handed, and smiles.

cans of beans.  
  
  


then one of it falls from his grasp and- "oh no," they all clutter to the ground, and ranboo huffs as he goes to grab them, stuffing them inside his bag. he cant wipe off the smile on his face, (maybe being friends isnt really that far fetched) and he hopes he can see them again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tommy, trying to be threatening like how his older brother teached him to be: hand me the fuckin beans  
> tommy, a minute after, forgetting to keep the gun pointed at him and just casually turning his back to a stranger: hmmm cans of paint-  
> tommy at the end, giving the stranger half of the food: ok he was fuckin nice to tubbo i guess-
> 
> also! chapters titles are from the song 'silence is all i have now' by Kurt Hugo Schneider, Lynnea M

**Author's Note:**

> hey, ranboo is cool.


End file.
